School Library Websites

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The Benton Library webpage has a really attractive look. When contrasted with the grey, the red brings the eye to all of the important information. The GoodReads section is a great place for students to recommend their favorite books and the floating Shefari bookshelves display books in a fun way. I really liked the idea of explaining the Project Gutenberg free downloadable books. That is a great resource that is underused at my school and I would like to add something like that to my page as well. I noticed that the chat and calendar areas were not live and wondered if those were only available to students.

Here is a quick overview of the things that really stood out in some other school library websites:

Grandview Library
  • fun welcome page that would be very inviting to young children
  • the mission statement is accessible through a click of a button rather than a wordy statement on the home page.
  • the lesson plans are on the website - this is something that I could easily do. My lesson plans are already in a Google spreadsheet, if I connect it to my webpage, parents (and administrators) could see what we are working on in the library. I would also like to add images to my links in my spreadsheet.

Lewis and Clark Elementary
  • I know this probably isn't really a big deal, but I love the spinning globe on this webpage. The city that I am in popped up and it had a list of where all of the visiters are from - I think kids would love this.
  • I liked that the librarian and some students put their reading goals on one of the blogs. She also listed the guidelines for blogging.
  • The librarian made access to the ebooks very easy by putting a link and a synopsis for each ebook on the webpage.
  • I am going to start a Mark Twain blog. The librarian started with a post for each book and then the students comment about them.

Solon Community School District
  • The button for "What should I read Next" is a great idea, kids are always struggling to find the next good read.
  • I really liked the laptop care video; I give the same directions over and over - viewing something like this should be a requirement for students before using the laptops. I think it could have been a little more interesting though. I would like to make one that would keep the students' interest.
  • I like the Book-a-Birthday idea. I think I will try to implement this at my school.